MFD opens temporary clinic to provide COVID-19 vaccine to first responders

The Marysville Fire District helped to organize a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for first responders which has been open for about a week now.

The clinic is allowing firefighters and EMS professionals across the county to have more access to the vaccine.

“We opened this Monday [Jan. 11] and since then we’ve had a fairly steady stream of individuals come in,” said Darryl Neuhoff, deputy chief with the Marysville Fire District.

The clinic is meant to increase local vaccination capacity while other sites are being organized.

“This is a stopgap measure that we could get going while other sites are being set up for the future,” said Neuhoff.

“Our initial intent is not to have this as a long-term facility. Once other sites that are larger and more efficient are up this site will likely be shut down,” he said.

The Marysville Fire District’s site has the advantage that it could mobilize quicker though, so district staff helped set it up.

There are multiple vaccination options for first responders around the county, including the Everett Clinic.

Neuhoff said the MFD's clinic has seen people from all around the county and even some from outside of it.

“The goal is to get the vaccine out in a quick and timely manner,” Neuhoff said. “We are not going to deny someone just because they live on the other side of a government line."

The Marysville Fire District wanted to help with the effort to support the COVID-19 recovery process.

“We’ve been deeply rooted with the other fire agencies and doing whatever we thought we could to help eradicate the virus,” said Neuhoff.

Fire districts and departments have worked to obtain protective equipment, standardize safety measures and develop rapid-response protocols during the pandemic.

“If we can help this way with resources and capacity while the system is gearing up for a bigger vaccine process we want to,” said Neuhoff.

Vaccinating more firefighters also makes the whole community safer, he said.

“This helps us protect not only our firefighters and EMTs, but also protects the people they are serving,” said Neuhoff.

The Marysville Fire District has given their own personnel flu shots before but have not had a vaccination effort this extensive, said Neuhoff.

“It’s a new process, but at the end of the day it is not that different from what we do, which is deal with emergencies and respond to them,” he said. “We work through them but there’s always challenges."

There is a lot of logistical work for the clinic, especially with documentation about where vaccines are going.

“We need to account for all of the vaccines and make sure they’re going to where they’re supposed to,” said Neuhoff.

Neuhoff said local fire district have spent a lot of resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and have been “very cooperative and have gone above and beyond to provide safety to the citizenry.”